Karrion Kross’ WWE run ended quite badly, and that shouldn’t at all reflect on the man himself. He has now returned to the in-ring name he used previously: Killer Kross. There are those that would say that it was WWE Creative that dropped the ball when the new direction for Kross was decided behind the scenes, and I’d have to agree with that.
Kross is a phenomenal athlete and performer that did not at all deserve the cards he was dealt at the end of his WWE run.
And in actual fact, when he did debut on Raw, the result was horrendous, he debuting in a losing match against Jeff Hardy and later with a horrendous mask and costume that was very reminiscent of 70s era low budget films and perhaps I’m being a tad too fair, as some of those films from that era are a guilty pleasure of mine.
Regardless, the desired effect was not at all reached for this epic talent, and he was released from the company not long after he was called up to the main roster from NXT. But there are those that feel that the issues with Kross went back to NXT—specifically to a segment where he and Adam Cole broke the proverbial fourth wall.
He went into that promo specifically in an interview with SHAK Wrestling. The promo was brutal, and really, it was delivered by Cole with loads of conviction. Cole is good at promos; that perhaps should go without saying. Kross urges that the promo was scripted, but that didn’t stop the NXT audience from being a tad taken aback, and their perception of the talented Kross would forever be changed, it seemed – at least as far as his WWE run would be concerned. Could WWE have changed that perception? Yes, but they opted to release him instead. Their loss.
Cole at the time was inserting himself into a Fatal 5-Way match for the NXT title scheduled for NXT TakeOver In Your House 2021. The match also included (aside from Kross): Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, Kyle O’Reilly, and Pete Dunne. Kross would retain, eventually losing the NXT title to Samoa Joe before Kross’ official main roster move.
Kross had been ‘over,’ in pro wrestling terms, with the NXT audience for quite some time, but there are those that believe that it was after that promo was delivered by Adam Cole in particular, that that previous momentum slowed considerably, and all before his main roster call up.
Here’s what Kross had to say on the matter:
“Regarding our promo, the night before we had received a script, so everything that he said and everything that I said was delegated to us by a writing team; he’s a total professional, he was awesome to work with and we literally just showed up did our job that day like we would do any other day. He’s always been the fourth wall promo guy and they thought that would be the best way to integrate him into the fatal 5-way match, which is what we went to.
If I recall, they were booking him, I don’t know, 50/50 booking after he had dropped the title to Keith. And how it was explained to me was, they wanted me to go up to the main roster with clean kills on everybody and time just wouldn’t afford it.
So they thought ‘how can we get the best guys of NXT into one match, where Kross can go over and kill these guys?’ And in this business, you know, you can’t just run people over all month in promos and tag matches and stuff; then kill them clean in the Pay-Per-View. They get nothing. So I think the idea behind was to let them get their licks in prior to the Pay-Per-View and then they just get smashed, and beat, and yeah…He needed to look strong in the promo and they’re playing on the fourth wall stuff…”
via SHAK Wrestling /Wrestling Inc (Transcription)
Will Ospreay throws out fighting words to one Jon Moxley
It was just this past Sunday that Will Ospreay was at the RevPro Live In London 58 event. As cultaholic.com reports, the former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion called out Mox just before the main event was set to go down.
Moxley has confirmed further work with NJPW in the future, so there’s no telling if this can or can’t happen, but seeing that Tony Khan recently started speaking about the ‘Forbidden Door’ again and even teased a new debut on Dynamite for this week, anything is possible, perhaps even seeing Ospreay on AEW TV.
Who knows for certain, but as I often say dear readers, let’s keep our fingers crossed for that one. Many dream matches featuring Ospreay and AEW stars can be imagined…one big one for me being Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson. Now that’s something worth praying for, folks. Trust me.